Alcohol consumption among young adults is widely accepted in modern society and may be the starting point for abusive use of alcohol at later stages of life. Chronic alcohol exposure can lead to visual function impairment. In the present study, we investigated the spatial luminance contrast sensitivity, colour arrangement ability, and colour discrimination thresholds on young adults that weekly consume alcoholic beverages without clinical concerns. Twenty-four young adults were evaluated by an ophthalmologist and performed three psychophysical tests to evaluate their vision functions. We estimated the spatial luminance contrast sensitivity function at 11 spatial frequencies ranging from 0.1 to 30 cycles/degree. No difference in contrast sensitivity was observed comparing alcohol consumers and control subjects. For the evaluation of colour vision, we used the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test (FM 100 test) to test subject’s ability to perform a colour arrangement task and the Mollon-Reffin test (MR test) to measure subject’s colour discrimination thresholds. Alcohol consumers made more mistakes than controls in the FM100 test, and their mistakes were diffusely distributed in the FM colour space without any colour axis preference. Alcohol consumers also performed worse than controls in the MR test and had higher colour discrimination thresholds compared to controls around three different reference points of a perceptually homogeneous colour space, the CIE 1976 chromaticity diagram. There was no colour axis preference in the threshold elevation observed among alcoholic subjects. Young adult weekly alcohol consumers showed subclinical colour vision losses with preservation of spatial luminance contrast sensitivity. Adolescence and young adult age are periods of important neurological development and alcohol exposure during this period of life might be responsible for deficits in visual functions, especially colour vision that is very sensitive to neurotoxicants.
Açai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) fruit from the Amazon region in Brazil contains bioactive compounds such as α-tocopherol, anthocyanins (cyanidin 3-glycoside and cyanidin 3-rutinoside), and other flavonoids with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Moreover, the prebiotic activity of anthocyanins in modulating the composition of gut microbiota has emerged as an additional mechanism by which anthocyanins exert health-promoting effects. Açai consumption may be a nutritional therapeutic strategy for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients since these patients present with oxidative stress, inflammation, and dysbiosis. However, the ability of açai to modulate these conditions has not been studied in CKD, and this review presents recent information about açai and its possible therapeutic effects in CKD.
Este artigo está licenciado sob forma de uma licença Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional, que permite uso irrestrito, distribuição e reprodução em qualquer meio, desde que a publicação original seja corretamente citada. ABSTRACT AIMS: To identify cardiovascular risk by triglyceride/high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-c) and to verify its association with socio-demographic factors, clinical parameters and body mass index in patients with chronic renal disease on hemodialysis. METHODS: Cross-sectional study, in which patients with chronic kidney disease in hemodialysis were evaluated. A non-probability convenience sampling was used. Sociodemographic data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire interview, and clinical and laboratory data were obtained from the medical records. For the identification of cardiovascular risk, the TG/HDL-c ratio was calculated from plasma triglycerides (mg/dL) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (mg/dL). The cut-off point for TG/HDL-c considered to be indicative of cardiovascular risk was ≥3.8 mg/dL. For statistical analysis, the chi-square test was used, and the significance level was set at 5% (p <0.05). RESULTS: A total of 71 patients were evaluated, with a mean age of 49.9±13.2 years, being 28 women (50.1±13.2 years) and 43 men (49.7±13.2 years). Among the 71 patients, 31 (43.66%) had cardiovascular risk characterized by the TG/HDL-c ratio ≥3.8 mg/dL. In general, the profile of patients with and without cardiovascular risk was similar. However, in patients with cardiovascular risk there was a higher proportion of males (77.42%), while in those who did not have this risk, the female gender was more frequent (52.50%). This variable showed a significant difference between the groups with and without cardiovascular risk (p=0.011). CONCLUSIONS: In this sample of patients with chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis, the TG/HDL-c ratio identified a high cardiovascular risk index, which was significantly associated with males.
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